PHOTOGRAPH YOUR FLOWERS * TIPS FOR BUDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS

I am always so pleased and excited when my flowers start to bloom. I want to take photos of my flowers to share with friends and family. Capturing the beauty of the bloom is not as easy as you think.

The happy snapper will just take a "record" type photo but not a budding photographer... love the pun! :) Remember, you are in control of your camera and your job is to introduce your viewer to something that they may never get a chance to witness.

So, let me run through some of my tips...

MORNING LIGHT & BACK LIGHT

These are monster Agapanthus that were proudly blooming over at the garden center. The early morning lighting was coming in from the back side making a charming and magical impression. The morning light has a cooler tint, which is better for shooting white objects. The afternoon sun gets into the warmer tones and those colours get absorbed up by the white blooms.

I needed to soak up as much of that cool white light as possible so I opted to stand back and shoot with my zoom lens. I let the green palms become a frame to the contrasting blue and white flowers. The zoom also softened the lower foliage.

COLOUR & LINES

I have been told that this is some kind of geranium but the big question in my mind, as I strolled on by, was why it was blooming through the Mediterranean Cypress hedge? The combination caught my eye and as a photographer, it is my mission to discover and capture beauty :)

The soft mauve, light purple, was so delicate. It was in harmony with the green Mediterranean Cypress as both were cool colours from the far side of the colour wheel.

The round softness within this cluster of mauve blooms was juxtaposed by the vertical edgy strands of tree green. Again, I used a macro len, but seeing that the dark green backdrop was going to darken down my flower, and I was in the morning lightening, I decided to open up my aperture a half point to let in a bit more light. I didn't want to use flash, or my shapes would be flattened.

PERSPECTIVE AND ATMOSPHERE

Some flower buds are like aliens to me. They are really ominous and magical.

Take this Agapanthus bud for an example. It is just strange. I wanted it be given a majestic profile so I decided to get down low and alter my perspective to look up at the grandeur.

I was fortunate to have a small cloud cover in the sky to use as my back ground, as clouds are more moody. I didn't want to much other peripheral information to take away from my big bud.

I decided to shoot this bud with a flash in order to light up the details. After, I ran it through my PhotoScape program and added a faded black edge to enhance the bud.

Yes, I even add some post-production sometimes... but I never crop a photo as that defeats the purpose of being a great photographer. You need to see the shot, capture the shot and finish!

SHADE & CIRCULAR RADIUS

Again, when shooting a white bloom there is better light in the morning. But, if you are a lazy head and cannot get up early, then to capture all the details and keep your whites as white as possible, you are best to shoot in the shade.

This is a sweet smelling Gardenia in its clay pot. When you have a round bloom, you can concentrate on the natural circular radius that Mother Nature gave it. Radial symmetry is everywhere in nature.

Stand above and shoot straight down. If you are in the shade, your body will not cause a shadow as you hunker over the bloom.

This was done with a macro setting so that the immediate surrounding leaves would stay in focus.

Another way to try shooting these round blooms is with a zoom and watch how softer the background becomes. And yes, I ran it through my PhotoScape program and added a faded black edge to enhance the radial symmetry.

FOCAL POINT & RHYTHM

The pretty little blooms that emerge out from the stalk of the Echium plant need a closer look. If you view this plant from a distance, the colour and repetition of the many blooms tends to blur the shape and detail of these adorable blooms individually. A macro lens lets you look into the world of small.

The repetition of the blooms create a rhythm as they charm the viewer. However, finding an excuse to break the rhythm makes a photo more interesting. Luckily for me, a beetle bug was nosing his way into one of the tiny blooms, showing off his backside.

The beetle has provided the viewer with a focal point and a bit of humour too... and we all need a bit of humour in our lives!! :) xx

Moving from a "happy snapper" to a real photographer means learning to change your perspective and guiding your camera to capture a different viewpoint.
That view might be something that your audience would never get to see in their lifetime, or perhaps you wish to create a narrative for your audience.
Let's take a look at these photos below to demonstrate my point!

Here you see the back of my dogs head in the bottom of the frame. That is Venus, get use to seeing her as she is a model in many of my photos ;)
In the middle of the frame are some horses from our neighbourhood stables.
I could have just taken a picture of the horse looking up at us but that would have been just a "happy snap". By moving around behind Venus and lowering my camera to her perspective and fixing on the horse looking up at us, I can visually tell a story about a little dog who adores looking at horses and a horse who is curious about a dog.

Does the absence of colour in photography make your statement more provocative and powerful?

This is a question that photographers need to ask themselves, if they are working on a serious topic that demands an immediate emotion.

As a photography instructor, it is my duty to take my students from the realm of "happy snapper" as I call the "point-and-shoot" crowd, to enlightened "photographers" who use their cameras as tools of expression and information.

In this Photographic Thesis, I wanted to use my camera to explore "Woman as the face of hope in humanity".

PREMISE

The early theologians would reflect on their icon of Mary, as their face of hope.

Besides Christ, no other subject in iconography has been more depicted than Mary, the Theotokos (Greek for “Mother of God”, literally “God-Bearer”). It shouldn’t be surprising that no human being born of a mother, would not resemble their mother to some extent.